How To Add XML Sitemaps to Google Webmaster Tools - Help Google Help You | WP Learning Lab

Add XML Sitemaps to Google Webmaster Tools - Help Google Help You | WP Learning Lab

In this tutorial you're going to learn how to add an XML sitemap for your website to Google Webmaster Tools.

Why would you want to do this? In short, to help Google find all the content your website more easily. The Google crawlers and spiders find the content on your website by following links found on your site and around the internet. But often you have content that doesn't have a lot of links pointing to it, or sometimes no links pointing to it. That means it's difficult for Google to find that content.

By using a sitemap Google can find all the content on your website very easily. Which is good for search engine optimization (SEO) and will help Google find the right place to rank your website's pages. In essence, by having a Google sitemap you're helping Google help you.

Before you can complete this tutorial you will need two things:

When you have those two things in place you can then add the XML site map to your Google Webmaster tools by doing the following.

Get the URL of your XML sitemap. Next, open your Google Webmaster Tools account and find the verified website you want to add the sitemap to. Open that site in Google Webmaster Tools.

Next, click on the Sitemaps tab on the right side of the page. On the next page click on the Add/Test Sitemap button. Add the URL of your sitemap and then click on Test Sitemap.

Google will check the sitemap and let you know if there are any problems with it. If everything looks good click on Add/Test Sitemap again and enter the sitemap URL again.

This time click on Submit Sitemap. After a few seconds your sitemap will be added and you can refresh the page.

It may take a few minutes, but soon Google will show you how many pages and images you submitted via the XML site map you submitted. After a few days, Google Webmaster Tools will show you how many of the pages on your website are included in the Google index.

Rarely are 100% of the pages included, but usually more than 50% are. If you're seeing less than that there's a potential problem on your website.

I hope this information helps you! If you have any questions leave a comment below or ping me @WPLearningLab on Twitter.

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[ianmichaeloliver]

I have been trying to add my sitemap to Google for the last few weeks with no luck. I watched your video and added my sitemap with this brilliant video. Thank You Very Much.

[archangel]

Most informative video on Web design I've ever seen. Currently building a website and this has been a HUGE help!!

[Igbostudy]

Thanks a lot. yours was the 3rd video I watched on this; it made the most sense and easy to follow.

[julielavinlpc]

Thank you so much for your videos on sitemaps. I've had my website built for awhile, but I could never understand how the sitemaps worked, even after watching a handful of YouTube explanation videos. Your videos were the first to make sense to me. Plus I did all of the steps and it worked! Yahoo! :-)

[KadwaSach]

Hi, i have three xml site maps: one is post site map, second is page site map and third is catagory site map. so do i need to copy the catagory sitemap too? bcz when i am adding catagory site map, the blue bar level decreases.

[lovelysandy]

What a good teacher you are. thank you so much

[manearnsevents]

hey.. video was awesome! have a lil question.. after uploading sitemap to webmaster! do we have to paste sitemap in the c panel as well?

[factoryvisions]

the best Channel(wp learning lab) very useful video ..your videos are step by step tutorial ... i can understand every WP step by step points >>>thank you verymuch

[russellhill]

Really helpful and very user friendly for a novice like myself....Thank You

[Obick]

This helped me so much! Can you just please just tell me if I need to repeat the whole process every time I add new content to my website?

[migratoryman]

Great, useful, easy to follow vid, thanks.

[paparazzigirlsbeauty]

i watched all your tutorials and it helped me a lot thanks :D

[altosommusic]

Thanks for all your videos.
You make easier to me customize my wordpress.

[KarinchenK]

Thank you for uploading these videos! Which one of you videos (link) will you recommend for further work with SEO and Google ranking?
Best regards

[chinedummaduabuchi]

Thanks so much man keep it up, I have subscribed

[BiggerBrain]

WordPress noob here, but would I be correct in assuming the sitemap is automatically updated when I post new articles to my website?

[cesarcastxx]

So easy and well explained, Thanks a lot. Besides all of this, what is the best way to complete the Yoast SEO to improve ranking?

[deandroid]

XML Sitemap Generator or Yoast SEO ..which is better?

I have installed both than Yoast shows a pop-up ..The Google XML Sitemaps plugin might cause issues when used in conjunction with Yoast SEO.

[mohammadreza]

it's been awhile that i'm running a website and now i wanna create sitemap.
first i wanna thank you for sharing your information with us
second i have a question.what happen if i submit 2 times my sitemap in search console???
and why yoast created bunch of different post sitemap for me?

[jd]

Very helpful information and easy to follow. Keep up the good work.